[pmwiki-users] Cookbook recipes and organization
Joachim Durchholz
jo at durchholz.org
Fri Apr 15 15:24:28 CDT 2005
Patrick R. Michaud wrote:
> I have a question for the group at large:
>
> Lately in the Cookbook I've noticed a trend towards creating larger
> recipes, and replacing small simple recipes with larger functions
> that require downloading zip archives, more documentation, and (to
> me) additional integration effort. [...] Somehow I feel as though it
> would be better to offer both approaches, with "See Also" links
> pointing to the alternatives, than to replace existing recipes
> altogether.
I'm just imagining I'm searching the recipes for a solution.
Now I imagine seeing a "See Also" button. What's my reaction?
... well, for me personally, it's a big sigh: I'll have to read that
other recipe as well. Then I have to (somehow) infer from the surface
descriptions which of the recipes is better suited. I'm forced to make a
decision that I'm not ready for yet - and, frankly, I don't want to
evaluate two recipes, I want a *solution*!
So, at least for me, I'd prefer a single recipe. Even if it's larger -
installing a single large recipe is far less work than installing two
and comparing them.
There's another bonus: less recipes make it easier for us to concentrate
on them, both for maintenance and answering questions.
And, of course, there's always a trade-off. Sometimes unifying two
recipes is far more work than the results would warrant. Sometimes the
differences between two similar recipes are clear enough so that it's
easy to decide which one is the right one for me just by reading the
description. No dogma here :-)
Regards,
Jo
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